DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: March 1, 2022

India step up its effort to bring back Indians home from Ukraine

Tags: International Relations

In a Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government of India has announced a number of steps to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine safely to home.

The Government will send its four cabinet ministers  as special envoy to the four neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the relief measures.

• Civil Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will travel to Romania and Moldova,

• Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju to Slovakia, 

• Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri to Hungary and. 

• Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Civil Aviation  Gen. V. K. Singh (retd.) to Poland.

The Ministry of External Affairs has been running helplines, and officials are posted at border checkpoints in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova. But the rush at these checkpoints, especially on the Poland-Ukraine border, has led to clashes and evacuees have had to wait for two or three days in freezing temperatures before making a crossing.

The ministers at the ground will help in the paperwork and expedite the process.

The Prime Minister also said that any citizens of neighbouring countries and developing countries who want to leave Ukraine will be helped by India in leaving Ukraine.

The Government of India will send the first consignment of relief materials including medicine on Ukrainian borders on the request of the Ukrainian ambassador to India, Igor Polikha. 

According to the government of India, around 8000 Indians had left Ukraine before the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022. There are still 12,000 Indians in Ukraine. They are mainly medical students who went to Ukraine to study medicine.

The Prime Minister also called and thanked the Prime Minister of Slovakia Mr. Eduard Heger and Mr. Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă, Prime Minister of Romania.

Indian GDP growth slows in 3rd Quarter 2022

Tags: Economy/Finance

The National Statistics Office (NSO) has released its second advance estimates for the financial year 2021-22 on 28 February 2022.

Major Highlights of the report 

• The Indian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 5.4 % in the third quarter (October 2021 to December 2021).  This is the slowest growth in a quarter in the current Financial year of 2021-22. 

• In the first quarter(April-June ) the GDP grew by 20.3%and in the second quarter (July-September ) it grew by 8.5%

• The GDP at constant (2011-12) prices in the third quarter  of 2021-22 was  estimated at Rs 38.22 trillion as against Rs 36.26 trillion in the third quarter of 2020-21, showing a growth of 5.4 per cent.

• The Indian economy's growth rate of 5.4 % in the 3rd quarter  makes it the fastest growing major economy in the world ahead of China which grew by 4% in the same time period .

• The growth in GDP during 2021-22 is estimated at 8.9 percent as against a contraction of 6.6 per cent in 2020-21. 

• The growth rate is lower than the Budget estimates which projected a growth rate of 9.2% for 2021-22.

• RBI in its latest Monetary policy has estimated a growth rate of 9.2 % for the Indian economy in 2021-22.

• The GDP stood at Rs 38,22,159 crore in October-December 2021-22, higher than the Rs 36,22,220 crore in the corresponding period of the 2020-21.

Sector  wise growth 

• According to NSO data, Gross Value Added (GVA) growth in the manufacturing sector growth remained almost flat at 0.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2021-22, compared to a growth 8.4 per cent a year ago.

• Farm sector GVA growth was slow at 2.6 per cent in the third quarter compared to 4.1 per cent growth a year ago.

• Construction sector GVA declined by 2.8 per cent as against a growth of 6.6 per cent a year ago.

• Mining sector grew by 8.8 per cent, as against a contraction of 5.3 per cent.

• Electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services segment posted a growth of 3.7 per cent in the third quarter of this fiscal against 1.5 per cent expansion a year ago.

• Similarly, trade, hotel, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting grew by 6.1 per cent compared to 10.1 per cent contraction a year ago.

• Financial, real estate and professional services growth stood at 4.6 percent in the third quarter compared to  a growth of 10.3 percent last year.

• Public administration, defence and other services grew at 16.8 percent during the quarter under review compared to 2.9 percent contraction a year earlier.

Central Statistical Office (CSO)

It is part of the National Statistical Office which comes under the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

It was earlier called the Central Statistical Organisation.  

CSO collects and releases data regarding :

• National Income ;

• Annual Survey of Industries ;

•  Economic Censuses;

• Consumer Price Indices for Urban Non-Manual Employees;

• Index of Industrial Production 

CSO Headquarters : New Delhi

IPCC warns of irreversible impact of global climate change

Tags: Popular Science and Technology

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned of a grim future for earth if global warming continues and the global temperatures continue to increase beyond 1.5% . 

• The latest warnings have come in the second part of IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report which talks about climate change impacts, risks and vulnerabilities, and adaptation options. The first part of the report was released in August last year.

• The Assessment Reports, the first of which had come out in 1990, are the most comprehensive evaluations of the state of the earth’s climate. Later reports were released in 1995,2001,2007 and 2015.

The report highlights the increasing impacts that are expected as the rise in global temperatures, currently around 1.1C, heads to 1.5Cabove the 1850s level.

Highlights of the report 

•  South Asia is the most vulnerable to severe climate change impacts due to its inequality and poverty .

• The Ganga, Indus, Amu Darya river basins in Asia will face severe water scarcity by 2050.It will adversely affect agriculture and drinking water scarcity in the region .

• Ahmedabad city faces a risk of urban heat island effect . It means that the average temperature in the city will be higher than the surrounding areas.

• Mumbai is at a high risk of rising sea level and consequent flooding

• If the temperature increases by 1-4  degree centigrade then rice production in the world can fall by 10-30% and maize production can fall by 25-70%.

• If temperatures rise to between 1.7 and 1.8C above the 1850s level, then the report states that half the human population could be exposed to periods of life-threatening climatic conditions arising from heat and humidity.

Rising Sea Level 

According to the IPCC report, global sea levels will likely rise 44-76 cm this century if governments meet their current emission-cutting pledges. With faster emission cuts, the increase could be limited to 28-55 cm.

But with higher emissions, and if ice sheets collapse more quickly than expected, sea levels could rise as much as 2 m this century and 5 m by 2150.

Wet Bulb Temperature

• Lucknow and Patna ,Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Mumbai, Indore, and Ahmedabad , are among the cities predicted to reach wet-bulb temperature of 35°C if emissions continue to rise.

•  Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab will be the most severely affected, but if emissions keep rising, all States will have regions that experience wet-bulb temperature of 30°C or more by the end of the century.

IPCC 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was set up by the World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nation Environment Programme in 1988.

 Aim of IPCC

It was set up to prepare a comprehensive review and recommendations with respect to

•  the state of knowledge of the science of climate change;
• social and economic impact of climate change, 
•  potential response strategies and elements for inclusion in a possible future international convention on climate.

Its Headquarters : Geneva, Switzerland 

Current Chairman : Hoesung Lee 

It shared Nobel Peace Prize with the  former American  Vice-President Al Gore in 2007

Concept Clearing 

What is Wet Bulb Temperature 

Human body regulates our body  temperature depending upon the external environment of heat and humidity.  If the temperature is high then our body tries to lower down our body temperature by sweating.  The more we sweat the faster the cooling.  However if humidity (water vapour in air ) is high then the ability of our body to cool also reduces . That’s why dry heat feels more tolerable than extreme humidity.

Wet-bulb temperature accounts for both heat and humidity, and reflects what that combination means for the human body’s ability to cool down.

The term wet bulb comes from a way the measurement can be taken, by wrapping a piece of wet cloth around the end of a thermometer to see how much evaporation can decrease the temperature.

35 degree centigrade is considered to be the maximum limit for a wet bulb temperature.

If the wet bulb temperature reaches 35 degree centigrade then a normal healthy human being cannot lose its body heat by sweating and will suffer heat stroke leading to death if they remain outdoors for a considerable period of time.

With the  continuous rise in earth temperature the risk of wet bulb temperature phenomena is expected to become common.

Hasmukh Adia re appointed Bank of Baroda Chairman

Tags: Popular Person in news

Government of India has reappointed former finance secretary Hasmukh Adia as the non-executive chairman of the Bank of Baroda for the next two years, starting from 1 March 2022.

He retired as the Finance Secretary, Government of India in 2018.

Bank of Baroda 

It is the third largest public sector bank in India after State Bank of India  (SBI)and Punjab National Bank (PNB).

The banks in which the government of India holds 51% or more equity shares are called public sector banks in India .

Managing Director(MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Sanjiv Chadha 

 The Headquarters of the bank: Vadodara,Gujarat  

Tagline of the Bank : India’s International Bank 

Mobile World Congress 2022

Tags: Popular Summits

Mobile World Congress is an annual tech and smartphone event that generally takes place at the end of February month in Barcelona, Spain.

• This year it is being held from 28 February to 3 March 2022.

• The Congress focuses on the latest smartphone and on networking . 

• All major top smartphone companies like Samsung, Apple etc participate in the event.

Fact files  Smartphone 

• The first smartphone was invented in 1992 by the IBM company of America It was called Simon Personal Communicator.

• China is the largest smartphone market in the world. 

• India is the second largest smartphone market in the world  and the United States of America is the third largest.